In my heart-of-hearts, I am a sailor...a wanderer...a voyager - this blog will hopefully become a useful collection of notes and links to resources that I think other sailors might find interesting or useful.

Sunday, July 6, 2014

2014 July - Boat Projects

July is going to be a busy month with a lot of boat projects

I have a number of projects related to the wiring on the boat - these are potentially useful resources I want to remember:

I have three new Group 31 AGM batteries for which I need to sort out a new plan for where to install them. This week I'll ask a local yard for quotes on a number of projects - including relocating the batteries - and glassing in a new platform for them.

I've swapped the wiring on the Battery Selector switch to assign #1 to the starting battery, and #2 to the house battery bank. My rationale for switching the assignment: To avoid the potentially inadvertent skip to "Off" when changing from starting to house, once the engine is running.

If #2 is wired as starting, and #1 is house - as was previously done on my boat - you run the risk of turning too far - as I once did when I turned the selector to off - while the engine was still running - which risks damaging the alternator. You can also install selector switch that has a field disconnect (or fail safe diodes) to eliminate the
chance of alternator damage due to inadvertent switching.

Now with the starting battery on #1, when I switch to #2 for house - I have avoided the risk.

"The introduction of electronic, 3-stage chargers in recent years has been a vast improvement in battery maintenance because these chargers are able to sense when the battery cannot take any more charge and then shut off"

"The absence of electronic controls makes these chargers more durable and dependable in various applications."

"Ferroresonant chargers have many limitations including lack the sophisticated control circuitry to give batteries what they need. As a result, these chargers may work well with flooded batteries, but can easily overcharge and damage more delicate modern sealed batteries. In addition, ferroresonant chargers are very sensitive to slight changes in line frequency and have low efficiencies since the ferroresonant transformers dissipate more heat than conventional transformers"